Warfare & Tactics

Hi all,

My corp of about 10 people moved to NPC station nullsec about a month ago and while we generally enjoy the area and space we have to deal regularly with local alliances who live there and have many times our numbers as well as a titan, supercarriers, carriers, dreads and as many battleships as a person could want.

As my corp does not have the direct firepower to match this we have mostly been trying to pick off their ratters and missioners to mixed success however their ability to titan bridge a fleet on us makes things difficult, but not impossible.

My question then is would it be better to move to non-station npc nullsec? Are these spaces generally populated, or if a POS is put up will a titan or dreadfleet come by to destroy it out of spite? Is a small tower too small? Is a large tower overkill?

Your input is appreciated. We are not butt-hurt about our current state of affairs in station npc nullsec, it is still enjoyable and profitable but a little too much for our small group but there does not appear to be any small-group areas in station npc nullsec.

Thanks!

It sounds like we might be that bigger alliance .

At the very least I have been in most forms of NPC 0,0 being both the under dog and having numbers. My first time in 0,0 was with a similar sized 10ish active member corp. We put a small POS with no defenses up in a station-less pipe in ORE. In hindsight a small pos is too tempting of a target. Within a week we were sieged by a small stealth bomber gang and at the time were too nooby to defend it.

Much later on I spent time in a constellation in Curse being the under dog. We had enough numbers/pvp experience to be a hassle for the local residents (who outnumbered us greatly) in one system of the constellation and could rat in our time zone, but it was very limiting. The funny thing is, eve actually became less fun when our natural enemies moved out and we had more control. Ganking random targets just can't compare to a dedicated enemy.

We focused on learning 0,0 pvp and training/recruiting better assets and FC's and now are comfortably in control of our constellation. We actually look forward to new small corps moving in and giving us fresh targets to hunt.

From the guerrilla warfare side, these are some of the things that worked for us:

Set traps:

Do you notice that every morning after down time one guy gets in a vaga to check the belts for officers? Drop a bubble at that asteroid belt off scan from all the other celestials and gank him. If they don't live in the same system as you set up random camps from the gate to your station or on the gate itself so they don't feel safe moving around. No matter how many caps/blobs they have, every alliance has FC's and every alliance has random noobs who will gladly walk right into your trap. Learn who is who.

AFK cloaked in a recon in their PVE systems. This is most effective if you demonstrate the ability to kill them at least once, after that they will be much more hesitant to rat or move around without a gang.

If you need to put a POS down, do it on a active pipe and give it enough defenses to make them work to reinforce/kill it. The longer they are sieging on an active pipe, the greater probability they will be scouted by a group who will come to kill them.

Don't rush to make blues. The struggle is the fun part.

Nullsec is close to pointless these days. 90% of good fights just baits for massive blobs, the other 10% is made up of easy kills and only a tony amount of actual fun fights.

The only reason you need a POS in a system without a station is to store and refit your ships. So invest in an orca alt, with a cloak, and if your POS gets caged and destroyed, you aren't up the creek entirely. In nullsec it's not hard to work out when it is safe to deploy your Orca.

If you do get a POS, of course you'll want to set it up to deter casual attack. So training POS gunnery will be helpful - it won't prevent dread blobs from RFing you but the inevitable fight over the RF timer can be much improved if you have POS gunners.

The thing to remember about NPC null sec is typically the people that live there cannot field a dreadnought blob large enough to reinforce a defended large POS in 10 minutes. If they could, they would probably go for sov. Every siege cycle their cap fleet enters puts billions of isk at risk to destroy something worth a couple of hundred million. If they ship down to battleships, a 2-3 hour POS siege is not the most appealing prospect.

Typically people in NPC nullsec are more focused on PvP than their sov counter parts and will only siege a POS if they think they can get a fight out of it. If the pain of structure bashing out weighs the potential for a good fight, that is usually a strong enough deterrent.

If your goal is to PVE in NPC 0,0 then an orca alt may be sufficient if you can find a worm hole to move it with. Scouting through many 0,0 jumps doesn't sound too appealing. Even anchoring containers at safe spots full of ammo for your ratters can be effective.

If your goal is to PvP and grow you need a stable base that can hold much more m3 of ships. Logistics is a primary issue. Having carrier's in corp, cyno alts, and ideally jump freighters is crucial. Eventually you will need to develop a system for moving new recruit's ships via courier contracts or other methods that scale well with numbers.

If you live in a station system, encourage members to stay logged in/docked. If you can get 10ish people logged in, and demonstrate the ability to undock 10 battle cruisers to gank someone in station games, that "fleet in being" is usually enough to give you some control of local.

I lived in NPC null for about 2 years. It is about the only null that a small force can really thrive in. You def need the station but you also need people to support it. Active PvP pilots that don't whine a lot.

You need to learn who your enemies are and if you can have a chance against them. Don't give them fights if all they ever do is titan bridge 3 times your numbers in. Remember, they are looking for fun too. Deny them fun and they will stop coming around. If they are about your size, you may learn some things and have some great fights.

POS are a liability imo. Not worth losing 1 ship over, in most cases. If you anchor a POS, concider it a throw-away and use it for a week, month, whatever.

Some blues is a good thing. All blues is not.

Don't assume this. Some people that live in NPC null don't want sov, but still have the assets to wipe out a large POS. Know your enemy...